This is to help anyone else who has the problem we had with a generic Android tablet, and games that store the progress ‘in the cloud’ – like The Simpsons Tapped Out.
After installing this game on a new, generic Android tablet running Ice Cream Sandwich, the game started at level 15 with someone else’s data.
It turns out that the ‘unique’ identifier Secure.Android_ID wasn’t as unique as it should have been, apparently not an unusual problem with small manufacturers’ ROMs.
Note that changing the device ID could screw up your installed apps, lose your existing game data, make you ill or set fire to your pants (in approximate descending order of likelihood). Do this at your own risk. You know you will anyway.
It’s possible to change the Android_ID value (note – not the telephony ID, which is related to phones’ IMEI numbers) providing the tablet is rooted.
I installed and ran Root Checker Basic and found that the tablet was supplied rooted.
So then I installed and ran Device Mod to change the Android_Id value. I used 16 random hex digits from a WEP Key Generator as the new ID.
Then to make sure the new id was picked up by the game, I uninstalled it, rebooted the tablet, deleted the data folder for the game from Android/Data using a File Explorer like this one, and then reinstalled the game.
I hope this helps someone else in the same position. Or me again at some point in the future.
Comments
Thank you! The same thing happened to me with my n…
Unknown - Feb 27, 2013
Thank you! The same thing happened to me with my new Android tablet and this fix worked perfectly with (so far) no unintended consequences. And having no previous experience or understanding of this sort of thing, thank you for the very easy to follow instructions!
I'm glad that it's worked for you too
Mark Lambert - Feb 27, 2013
I'm glad that it's worked for you too!
Hi There, i am having the same problem as you both…
Anonymous - Mar 03, 2013
Hi There, i am having the same problem as you both but when i try to generate a 16 digit key they all have more or less than 16 ??
I just used one of the longer ones and took the fi…
Mark Lambert - Mar 03, 2013
I just used one of the longer ones and took the first 16 digits. It'd be a bad approach for cryptography, but all we're trying to do here is avoid having the same ID as someone else with an android tablet - so it should be OK.